Wigmore Hall
Brockes-Passion, Arcangelo, Cohen, Wigmore Hall review – hybrid HandelWednesday, 09 October 2019
Handel’s Brockes-Passion is a curious piece - sacred but not liturgical, and with a strong influence from opera, though it is a concert work. Solo voices predominate, and the singers assembled at Wigmore Hall were mostly fine. Jonathan Cohen and his... Read more... |
Leonskaja, Ferschtman, Várdai, Wigmore Hall review - direct line to Schubert's geniusMonday, 07 October 2019
From the epic-lyric heaven storming of Beethoven's last three piano sonatas to the lyric-epic dances on the volcano of Schubert's two late piano trios isn't so big a leap, especially when you have the clairvoyant poise between colossal and intimate... Read more... |
Beethoven Festival Weekend, Wigmore Hall review 1 - sparkle and charisma versus creative overkillMonday, 16 September 2019
While the Proms were ringing out the old season, the Wigmore Hall ushered in the big celebration of 2020: the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth. The venue’s year-long festival (actually longer – the actual birthday is December ‘20)... Read more... |
Beethoven Festival Weekend, Wigmore Hall review 2 - total mastery in tone and depthMonday, 16 September 2019
Any festival would be proud and honoured to end with the great Elisabeth Leonskaja playing the last three Beethoven piano sonatas. Here the Everest was swiftly scaled as the tenth concert of a packed Wigmore Hall weekend. How I wish I could have... Read more... |
Django Bates Belovèd Trio, Evan Parker, Wigmore Hall review – a one-off or a premiere?Monday, 15 July 2019
"Genius" is a word to be used sparingly, but Django Bates surely is one. “A musical polymath and prodigiously gifted composer” went the citation for his Ivor Award a few weeks ago. “Joyful, insouciant and insanely clever,” wrote Evan Parker in a... Read more... |
'A product not only of his era but also of his travels': Ian Page on Mozart's cosmopolitan educationMonday, 08 July 2019
When Mozart was an established composer living in Vienna during the final years of his short life, a young student seemingly came to him to seek his advice. The would-be young composer said that he was planning to write a symphony, and asked Mozart... Read more... |
Ax, Keenlyside, Dover Quartet, Wigmore Hall review – celebratory SchumannWednesday, 26 June 2019
Emanuel Ax here celebrated his 70th birthday with an all-Schumann recital. In fact, it was an all-Schumann marathon, a three-hour concert at Wigmore Hall featuring solo works, Dichterliebe with Simon Keenlyside, and, with the Dover Quartet, the... Read more... |
Igor Levit, Wigmore Hall review – full-spectrum Bach from a prodigious talentThursday, 23 May 2019
You seldom hear a Champions League-level roar of approval at the Wigmore Hall. Last night, though, Igor Levit drew a throaty collective bark of appreciation from the audience after (for once) an awed hush had followed the final dying cadences of the... Read more... |
Takács Quartet, Wigmore Hall review – strong voices in a glorious groupThursday, 16 May 2019
When critics praise a first-rank string quartet, convention demands they claim that the whole adds up to more than the sum of its parts. True enough, maybe, but with the Takács Quartet, each separate element really does blaze with a soloistic,... Read more... |
Hardenberger, Pöntinen, Wigmore Hall review - superstar trumpeter shows his classTuesday, 14 May 2019
There can be no questioning trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger’s extraordinary mastery: his big, unforced sound, mellifluous legato, athletic virtuosity and utterly controlled high notes. But his well-attested commitment to the avant-garde led the Wigmore... Read more... |
Clara Mouriz, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton, Wigmore Hall review - the song recital as mixtapeTuesday, 07 May 2019
It’s the age of the mixtape. And of the Only Connect sequences round. Last night’s Wigmore Hall song recital, under the curious strap-line “Basque Blood and the Folksong” was centred around Ravel songs – the Wigmore Hall has a focus on them this... Read more... |
JACK Quartet, Wigmore Hall review – superlative Elliott Carter quartetsMonday, 08 April 2019
At Wigmore Hall the JACK Quartet presented the complete Elliott Carter string quartets in a single day – an astonishing feat given the scale and complexity of the music. One of Carter’s many achievements here is the self-sufficiency of each of his... Read more... |
